Visual measurement of metal cutting tool wear

Summary form only given, as follows. A machine vision system has been designed and constructed for automatic visual measurement of wear patterns on metal cutting tools used for machine shop lathes. Applications of the system include (1) adaptive control of the tool cutting path based on the tool wear to ensure high-precision machining and (2) prediction of tool breakage determined from wear patterns and cutting force measurements. Phase-stepping interferometry is used to project sinusoidal patterns onto the reflective surfaces of the cutting tool. Using multiple phase shifts of the patterns, three-dimensional information about the edge of the tool can be extracted from video images. The spatial resolution of the system is on the order of 2 to 5 mu m. A description of the system together with experimental results will be given.